This invention relates generally to the field of sanding a workpiece such as wood. More particularly, this invention in certain embodiments relates to a versatile glove to which abrasives can be attached in many configurations to facilitate sanding.
Among the more difficult and tiring jobs associated with woodworking are the sanding and finishing jobs. Such jobs have been aided by use of power sanding devices, but almost invariably, some amount of hand sanding is generally needed in any quality sanding job.
In order to properly sand a given workpiece while retaining crisp detail lines and smooth scratchless contours, often the person doing the sanding must carefully devise various shapes of sandpaper and sanding blocks to properly conform to various shapes and details. Otherwise, fine details can be destroyed in the sanding process. Gripping sanding blocks, sanding sticks, sanding pads and individual pieces of sandpaper can fatigue the hand and fingers and be extremely tiresome as the woodworker carries out the sanding process through multiple grades of abrasive to achieve a quality smooth surface that is free of sanding marks.
In order to assist in this sanding process, several types of sanding gloves have been devised. In some designs, an abrasive is permanently attached to the glove. This permits the user to carry out certain sanding operations without the need for constantly gripping sandpaper, sanding pads, sanding blocks or sanding sticks. Unfortunately, such devices are more costly than sandpaper and only carry one grade of abrasive. Additionally, such gloves are limited in their applicability due to the user""s inability to manipulate the shape of the abrasive beyond that of the gloved hand.
In other designs, various mechanisms have been devised to provide for attachment of sandpaper to the glove using hook and loop fasteners and the like. However, existing designs have not met with commercial acceptance. In one such design, the hook and loop fastening materials covers an entire palm side of a mitten style glove. Such designs are deficient in that they permit the user""s hand to move somewhat freely within the glove. This is undesirable in the sanding process since the desire is for the glove to remain stationary with respect to the hand and move in relation to the workpiece. In other designs, the palm side of the glove is fitted with hook and loop fastening materials on all four fingers, the palm and the thumb. This design leads to a costly glove that is subject to wear on any parts of the hook and loop fastening material that are not fully covered with an abrasive. Both of these designs are deficient in that they significantly inhibit the user from freely using the gloved hand to pick up and manipulate objects without removal of the glove. This is because the hook and loop fasteners used on such gloves has a slick surface that sticks to mating material but provides little friction for non-mating materials. Additionally, the addition of such hook and loop fastener material to a glove reduces the user""s ability to flex the glove easily to facilitate manipulation of objects.
The present invention relates generally to a versatile sanding glove. Objects, advantages and features of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon consideration of the following detailed description of the invention.
In one embodiment, a sanding glove consistent with embodiments of present invention is made up of a soft leather glove that has a thumb compartment, an index finger compartment, a middle finger compartment, a ring finger compartment and a small finger compartment, each of the finger compartments having palm sides and back sides and fingertip ends, and a main opening for insertion of a user""s hand. Each of the index, middle and ring finger compartments have a strip of hook fastener material attached to the palm side and the back side thereof. The thumb compartment and the small finger compartment are devoid of strips of hook fastener material so that the loop backed sanding pad of any desired shape can be attached to at least one of the strips of hook fastener material to facilitate sanding. The thumb and small finger compartments are free of hook fastener material (or are omitted entirely) to facilitate the user""s ability to grip and manipulate objects without removal of the glove.
The above summary is intended to describe an exemplary embodiment of the invention, which will be best understood in conjunction with the detailed description to follow. This summary is not intended to limit the scope of the appended claims.